I've been searching for trucks for a few years now. Well, I finally sold my old Jeep and then found this sitting 4 hours away outside of Raleigh, NC. Went and checked it out, drove it, haggled and left it sitting. Spent a bunch of money truck hunting for another month and finally decided if the offer I got on this one was still good, I would get it. Called and the guy told me he would still take what we agreed on last time, I told him to get the paper work ready I would see him the next day.
Specs:
2000 GMC K2500 Sierra SLE Crew Cab Short Bed
350/4L80E
14BSF
4.10 gears
She was the personal truck of a contracting business owner from South Carolina and as such, is pretty clean. Zero rust, just sand every where and she's a little dirty inside and dented on the outside. But, I don't want a show truck, I want a nice truck that I'm not afraid to work with. 267k miles on the clock and still ticking along just fine.
The day we brought her home:
Had to replace the hood release latch, park brake release latch, put in new head light, park light and marker light lenses on the front, had ball joints put in and got a set of Michelin LTX M/S2 tires in 285/75/16 Load Range E tires put on her.
The tires scrubbed pretty good so I jacked the torsion bars up 4 turns and that got me about an inch of lift in the front and opened up plenty of room for the 285's to do their thing.
Next I changed the thermostat, both temperature sensors, and the antifreeze as it was still the original (looking) DEX-COOL that is known to break down and start attacking the aluminum it is designed to protect. The temperature gauge is bad but I'm looking at getting another gauge set to have a place in Richmond rebuild, put my mileage in and install when the mileages match. I'm proud of the 1/4 million miles on this thing, hope I can get it to 1/2 million.
I've always loved the idea of a crew cab step side, and since I own a crew cab with a "well worn" 6' bed, I figured now is the best time to put one together. I lucked out and scored a pretty clean (rust wise) bed from a kid who was parting out his mud truck. $200 with tail gate, new tail lights, and it is already bed lined.
Coming home with the bed:
I had wanted a set of the newer aluminum wheels for it, but the steelies with caps and rings are really growing on me and I think I'm going to stick with them. They need a little clean up, but the whole truck needs that.
